Will Summers Beat Biden On “Buy American”?

Chris Hayes writes about the battle lines growing in the Obama administration between the center-right neoliberals, led by Larry Summers, and the labor-friendly liberals like Melody Barnes. Summers, he says, is winning handily:

Summers has already come to dominate the White House economic policy shop. One person close to Obama’s economic team told me that on economic policy, "it’s looking like it’s Larry’s show." This leaves a disconcerting vacuum in the White House for a labor-liberal voice equal in stature and clout.

He hopes that Joe Biden will step into breech and become a counterbalancing force to the free-marketeer Summers. Larry is a strong opponent to nationlizing the banks out of philosophical opposition to "big government," dismissing it as "Putinesque," but has no apparent problem with overpaying banks for toxic assets and foisting them off on taxpayers.

Jane Hamsher

Jane is the founder of Firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She’s the author of the best selling book Killer Instinct and has produced such films Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. She lives in Washington DC.Subscribe in a reader